after many hours I finally got all pieces of the Mythical Warborn set. I also have a complete Stoneguard set which is why I wanted to combine these two sets. The obvious choice for this kind of build is the Blademaster in my opinion since it supports physical damage as well as dual wielding techniques.
However, I’m a bit unsure about the skill setup since I still haven’t tried a DW melee yet after a few hundred hours. What are the best Nightblade skills for such a build?
Edit 1: Made some changes after getting some feedback -> New Version
Edit 2: Consent in this thread is to go with a Witchblade build for example like Dioarchet’s build since it is more offensive but also defensive -> Grimtools
Setup looks good. I’d drop the WPS besides Execution. They won’t do you any good.
Cadence + Execution is a net DPS gain
When other WPS like Zolhan and Belgothian get in the mix they end up screwing up the net output as they effectively “reduce” the chance for Execution to proc
I’ve been wanting to try out Stoneguard for melee cause of that armor proc didn’t think of going DW. Try your setup out, you might be on to something here
Thanks for the input so far, Chthon, veretragna and USER_NAME_01. I tried to push the WPS trigger chance to 100%, but I didn’t think the net DPS would drop. I saw TZ Tz’s earlier build in version 1.0.1.1 which used Beronath Reforged to open up for some Elemental Damage options.
For this build however, I wanted to force the usage of the two legendary sets. I like the presumably good defense of this build (haven’t tried Stoneguard yet) in connection with the offensive potential.
I considered a Witchblade build due to the points you already mentioned. Blood of Dreeg as well as Curse are always a good option for a great melee build. After playing Grim Dawn for a while now, I wanted to try a DW Melee build which is why I decided to start a Blademaster.
I chose a rather ‘simple’ medal because I can get it possibly a bit easier (besides farming the components) and it has some nice resistances.
It would be great if I could make some kind of new great build
Guess the biggest difference is that mine is more physically tanky and doesn’t require any greens. Blindside was maxed for the DA reduction. The two weapons swapped places because Stoneguard Pummeler does more average damage per hit. I reckon energy pots would suffice for energy (not sure about this), so I didn’t take Healing Rain. I went Vire for more effective DPS and armor. I didn’t go Nature’s Guardians because this build has no CDR.
For me this build actually began as an experimental DW Commando with over 12k max armor. Then I gradually made it more offensive.
It should be able to handle Ravager of Minds very well with a few adjustments.
To OP: Listen to us, WB is better.
No kidding, I always thought Warborn + Stoneguard has excellent potential, in particular for enabling highly comfortable “do it all” DW gameplay with potentially no greens required. In FG, 7 pieces of this build (besides relic) can be effectively craftable too.
The idea to use Stoneguard was already born earlier when I saw actuanpanda’s Tactician build. However at that time, I was a bit sceptical since I had to give up a few skill bonuses for this build. The Blademaster build from above was more an overnight idea that came to my mind.
The greens were meant to get the necessary resistances and offensive ability. They were chosen to be craftable because farming MIs is a real pain. I already thought about switching the weapons for more damage. However it seems that I do not understand DW quite well. Is it really that effective with less WPS? In the original Blademaster build, I tried to maximise the number of hits with both weapons.
Healing Rain and Nature’s Guardian are a favourite of mine. I know that NG needs CDR to be most effective but I still like it. Perhaps I haven’t found my love for min-maxing yet
But… But… My Blademaster
Guess I go with WB and call it Macemaster then to avoid any misunderstandings
WPS works best with a default attack replacer like Savagery, Fire Strike, Fleshwarped Strikes, etc. Cadence is not a default attack replacer. It automatically cuts average WPS frequency by 1/3 and does not combine its damage with them in any way (except by Deadly Momentum). If you do combine WPS with Cadence, ensure that every point you spend in WPS will result in a decent net DPS increase. In my WB build above, that allowed only a single point in MA. Two points is OK also.
In addition to what dioarchet has said (and to paraphrase fluff), DW gives you a 50% chance of hitting twice with a normal attack, allowing you to proc cadence faster. Any hits with a WPS instead counts as a single hit.
Simply put:
Hit pattern with WPS or without DW proc: thunk, thunk, cadence
Hit pattern with DW proc: thunkthunk cadence
This is the explanation I needed. I always thought that a WPS would deal more damage than a regular hit which is why I tried to get the WPS rate to 100%. I also knew that Cadence can trigger WPS only on the first two strikes but I didn’t know that a regular DW hit without an WPS would count as two hits. Thanks for the information.
Wasn´t the chance to hit with both weapons 1/3?
“The only thing different about Duel Wielding is that you don’t have a default attack, you have three default attacks*:
Left Hand Attack L (35)
Right Hand Attack R (35)
Both B (30)” http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?p=251715#post251715
IMHO there’s still a lot of misinformation and confusion surrounding Cadence + WPS interaction as well as DW mechanics in general. It doesn’t help that the animations can appear different depending on whether the mouse button is held down (or rapidly pressed) or not.
Somebody needs to do vigorous and thorough scientific tests and figure it out for good.
1/3 seems to be plausible. Although the values might vary a bit the essential information about Cadence and WPS for me (to come back to my original question) is this:
So, if I use something like e.g. Fire Strike or Savagery I should max the chance for a WPS instead since they work in a different way than Cadence. Is that correct?
So i tried this out and threw all my %bonus to armor crafted gear i had on there too. Ended up with 5k+ armor without procs and 8k armor will all the procs up. Had a of dranghoul ikrix scale for medal instead that gave and additional 15% armor and yeah, he is a tank.
Downside is his damage is pretty awful, took him through crucible and even with amatok and vanguard banner he took forever to kill stuff (even worse if you get the armored mutator). On the upside though he was never even close to being in danger so doing 170 was a walk in the park
Sturdiness of the build is great, though i’d look into a slightly more offensive devotion setup to fix the damage issues
